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WAR      INFORMATION      SERIES 


No.  12 


February,  1918 


AMERICAN   AND    ALLIED 
IDEALS 

AN  appe:\l  to  those  who 

ARE  NEITHER  HOT  NOR  COLD 


BY 

STUART  P.  Sherman 

Professor  of  English  in  the  TJniversily  of'IMinois 


^2^Vj\ 


y 


IC'/O'  Issued  by 

ITIE  COMMITTEE  ONm  PUBLIC  INFORMATION 
WASHINGTON.  D.  C. 


^'^ 


COMMITTEE   ON   PUBLIC    INFORMATION 

Washington,  D.  C. 

(Established  by  Onlcr  uf  tlic  Prcsidonl,  April  11,  1017.) 


1.     RED  WHITE  AND  BLUE  SERIES 

1.  How   the   War   Came    to   America.      ;i2    paKi'S.      (Translations   into   German,  Polish 

Biilii'inian,  Italian,  Spanish,  Swi'disli,  Portuguese,  Yiddish,  and  Croatian.     48  pages.) 

2.  National  Service  Handbook.     2tt'i  i>a);es.      (15  cents.) 

3.  The  Battle  Line  of  Democracy.     A  collection  of  patriotic    prose    and    poetry.      134 

pages.      (1">  eeiits.) 

4.  The  President's  Flag  Day  Speech,  with  Evidence  of  Gernrtany's  Plans.     32  pages. 

5.  Conquest  and  Kultur.    (Juntations  from  German  writers  revealing  the  plans  iind  pur- 

pi>ses  iif  paii-Gennany.     1(30  pa^es. 

6.  German  War  Practices:     Part  I — Treatment  of  Civilians.     91    paKf'H. 

7.  War  Cyclopedia:    A  Handbook  for  Ready  Reference  on  the  Great  War.     151.' 1  pages. 

(-'.-)  cents.) 

8.  German  Treatment  of  Conquered  Territory:  Part  II  of  "German  War  Practices." 

01  jiages. 

9.  War,  Labor,  and  Peacei  Some  Recent  Addresses  and  Writings  of    the  President. 

.'Vnierican   Repiv  to  the   Pope;  .Vddress  to  the  American   Federation  of   Labor;   Mes- 
sases  to  Con«ress  of  Dec.  4,  1917,  Jan.  8,  and    Feb.  11,  1918.     {In  prenH.) 
(Other  issues  are  in  preparation.) 

II.     WAR  INFORMATION  SERIES 

101.  The  War  Message  and  the  Facts  Behind  It.     32  pages. 

102.  The  Nation  in  Arms.    Two  addresses  by  Seeretarics  Lane  and  Baker.     16  pages. 

103.  The  Government  of  Germany.     By  Charles  D.  Hazen.     16  pages. 

104.  The  Great  War:  From  Spectator  to  Participant.     By  A.  C.  McLaughlin.     16  pages. 

105.  A  War  of  Self-Defense.    Addresses  by  Secretary  of  State  Lansing  and  Assistant  Secre- 

tary of  Labor  Post.    22  pages. 

106.  American  Loyalty.     By  American  citizens  of  German  descent.     24  pages. 

107.  Amerikanische  Biirgertreue.     German  translation  of  No.  IOC. 

108.  American  Interest  in  Popular  Government  Abroad.     By  E.  B.  Greene.     10  pages. 

109.  Home   Reading  Course  for  Citizen   Soldiers.      Prepared  by  the  War  Department. 

62  pages. 

110.  First  Session  of  the  War  Congress.    Complete  summary  of  alllegislation.    48   pages. 

111.  The  German  War  Code.      By  G.  W.  Scott  and  J.  W.  Gamer.     16  pages. 

112.  American  and  Allied  Ideals.     By  Stuart  P.  Sherman.     24  pages. 

113.  German  Militarism  and  its  German  Critics.     By  Charles  Altschul.     44  pages. 

114.  The  War  for  Peace.     By  .Arthur  D.  Call.    Views  of  American  Peace  organizations  and 

leaders  in  the  present  war.     (/«  press.) 

115.  Why  America  Fights  Germany.     By  John  S.  P.  Tatlock.     (In  press.) 

(Other  issues  are  in  preparation.) 

III.     LOYALTY  LEAFLETS 

L'Ol.    Friendly  Words  to  the  Foreign  Born.      By  Judge  Joseph  Buffiiigton.        (Tran.slations 

into  the  principal  foreign  languages  are  in  preparation.) 
202.    The  Prussian  System.     By  Frederic  C.  Walcott. 

(Other  issues  in  preparation.) 

IV.     OFFICIAL  BULLETIN.      (Published  daily;  priro  $5  per  year.) 


Any  TWO  of  the  above  publications  arc  distributed  FREE,  except  as  noted. 
Address — 

COMMITTEE  ON  PUBLIC  INFORMATION 
10  Jackson  Place,  Washington,  D.  C. 


SRLF 
YRL 

AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS 

AN  APPEAL  TO  THOSE  WHO  ARE  NEITHER  HOT 
NOR  COLD 

By  Stuart  P.  Sherman 
Professor  of  English  in  the  University  of  Illinois 

AFTER  several  montlis  of  war  it  is  becoming  steadily  clearer 
to  men  of  discernment  that  the  victory  of  our  soldiers  in 
the  trenches  will  be  achieved  in  vain  unless  their  cause  triumphs 
behind  their  lines.  At  the  present  time  their  cause  is  still  com- 
promised by  the  lukewarmness  of  many  of  our  so-called  leaders 
of  light  and  learning  who,  in  spite  of  all  their  opportunities, 
have  not  yet  discovered  what  we  are  fighting  about.  The 
remedy  indicated  by  the  symptoms  is  beset  with  grave  dangers 
for  the  unwary.  It  is  a  resolute  participation,  on  the  part  of 
e<lucated  men  and  women,  in  proi)aganda  for  American  and 
allied  itleals.  A  more  cautious  writer  would  say  participation 
in  "public  information";  but  public  information  is  not  all  that 
I  have  in  mind.  In  this  matter  of  inculcating  American  and 
allied  ideals,  ever)'  one  awake  to  the  need  of  the  hour  should 
be  ready  to  cry  in  the  words  attributed  by  Webster  to  John 
Adams:  "Sir,  before  God,  I  Ijelieve  the  hour  is  come.  My 
judgment  approves  this  measure,  and  my  whole  heart  is  in  it." 
Let  us  not  mince  words:  propagandism  means  zealous  campaign- 
ing to  make  ideals  and  principles  take  hold  ujion  characters  and 
prevail  in  conduct . 

Mcst  educated  Aincricaiis  of  this  gcncMation  liavo  been  bicd 
and  trained  to  look  with  suspicion  upon  the  propagandist. 
Most  of  us  have  been  indoctrinated  with  the  ideal  which  is  said 
to  guide  the  investigator  in  the  ficl<ls  of  science,  namely  to  follow 
truth,  patiently,  disjjassionately,  wheiever  it  leads,  without 
reference  to  its  pra<'tical  conse(pienc(>s.  yVccordingly,  most  of 
us  have  ado|)te(j  the  at  t  it  udi^  of  nent  r;il  entiuireis  and  expositors. 
We  seek  to  create  the  impression  that,  we  have  no  axe  to  giind. 
We  have  accustomed  ourselves  to  studying  and  presenting  our 
facts  with  true  impartiality,  all  that  there  are  on  one  side  and 


4  amj:kua.\  AM)  Ai.i,i]:i)  in]';AT.s 

all  that  tluMV  arc  on  the  othor,  coiu'caliiijz;  our  i^oint  of  view, 
al)staiuing  from  advocacy,  withholding;  our  conclusions,  leaving 
tlie  verdict  to  a  jury  which  our  own  apparent  indifference  has 
frequently  rendered  gcMuiinc^ly  indifferent. 

To  depart  from  this  iH)sition  of  iKMsonal  i-e(iccnce  and  neu- 
trality is  for  some  of  us  distasteful  and  for  all  of  us  dangerous, 
unlt>ss  we  know  precisely  what  we  are  about.  To  participate, 
in  tlie  fever  and  excitement  of  war  time,  in  a  zealous  campaign 
for  political  and  cultural  ideals  is  frankly  to  forsake  the  still  air 
of  delightful  studi(>s  for  tlie  arena  of  violent  and  angry  passions. 
It  is  to  be  occupied  no  longer  with  "mere  literature"  ])ut  with 
high  explosives.  Just  as  soon  as  we  come  out  into  the  open, 
and  proclaim  our  faith,  and  l)end  our  efforts  towards  making  a 
powerful  application  of  our  ideals  to  life,  towards  making  our 
faith  prevail,  just  so  soon  shall  we  be  exposed  to  three  major 
temptations.  The  first  temptation  of  the  propagandist  is  to 
become  a  wily  liar,  betraying  the  cause  which  he  advocates  by 
false  emphasis,  garbled  reports,  and  the  sujipression  of  evidence. 
His  second  temptation  is  to  become  a  lilind  and  venomous 
hater  of  every  one  and  all  things  that  oppose  the  propagation  of 
his  faith.  His  third  temptation  is  to  yield  to  megalomania  and 
national  egotism — signs  of  that  madness  which,  according  to 
the  ancient  proverb,  appears  in  those  whom  God  has  marked  for 
destruction. 

Why  run  these  risks?  What  extraordinary  crisis  challenges 
the  academic  person  to  emerge  from  his  academic  retreat  and 
throw  all  that  he  has  of  personal  force  into  the  advocacy  of 
American  and  allied  ideals?  The  obvious  answer  is:  The  same 
crisis  as  that  which  calls  upon  the  soldier  to  incur  the  risks  of 
wounds  and  death.  The  answer  is  good.  It  is  a  sufficient 
answer.  But  it  does  not  directly  illuminate  the  peculiar  tasks 
and  responsibilities  of  scholarship  in  the  war.  It  will  appeal  to 
men  of  "fighting  blood";  but  I  should  like  to  make  an  answer 
that  will  appeal  also  to  men  who  are  not  of  fighting  blood,  who 
hold  themselves  somewhat  aloof  from  the  combat,  and,  like  that 
eminent  Frenchman  of  letters  who  has  retreated  to  Switzerland, 
inhabit  an  air  of  intellectual  tranquillity  above  the  clouds.  The 
so-called  intellectual  class  in  America  is  still  infested  with 
Laodiceans,  who  think  they  have  done  enough  if  they  acquiesce 


i  MERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS  5 

in  what  others  do;  and  with  industrious  scholars  and  men  of 
letters  who  have  not  yet  regarded  the  war  as  anything  but  a 
quite  extraordinary  nuisance.  Like  Tennyson's  lotos-eaters 
they  are  still  crying,  ''Let  us  alone!  What  pleasure  have  we  to 
war  with  evil?"  Others  there  are  who,  contemplating  the  prostitu- 
tion of  contemporary  German  science,  philosophy,  and  scholar- 
ship to  the  service  of  a  barbarous  government,  bitterly  oppose 
the  contamination  of  literature  by  politics,  and  fearfully  appre- 
hend a  disaster  to  truth  in  any  connection  of  their  scholarship 
with  the  destiny  of  nations.  To  such  men  but  one  valid  justifica- 
tion for  engaging  in  propaganda  can  be  presented:  that  is,  that 
the  ideals  which  they  are  invited  to  defend  are  their  own  ideals, 
that  the  American  and  allied  ideals  are  the  ideals  of  interna- 
tionally-minded men,  of  scholars,  and  lovers  of  peace.  I  shall 
say  something  of  that;  but  I  wish  to  lead  up  to  the  international 
through  the  national  ideals  for  the  purpose  of  emphasizing  their 
compatibility. 


It  is  generally  agreed  among  lil)eral  thinkers  that  a  nation 
which  does  not  conduct  itself  like  a  beast  of  prey,  a  nation 
which  has  long  followed  a  course  of  tolerably  decent  behavior 
at  home  and  abroad,  has  both  a  natural  and  a  prescriptive  right 
to  live.  It  is  a  corollary  of  this  agreement  that  such  a  nation 
has  a  right  to  defend  its  own  life  from  foreign  aggression.  I 
think  I  may  even  be  so  l)old  as  to  say  that  defending  its  own 
life  is  its  duty  and  resp(jnsibility.  I  imagine  it  will  also  be 
conceded  that  the  life  of  a  nation  includes  not  merely  the  lives 
and  property  of  living  generations,  but  also  the  common  prin- 
ciples and  ideals,  the;  national  culture,  which  these  living  genera- 
tions have  received  as  a  sacred  inheritance  from  their  fore- 
fathers, and  which  they  cherish  as  a  priceless  possession  to  be 
be(jueathed  to  their  posterity.  Finally  I  suppose  we  shall 
agree  that  the  United  States  is  such  a  nation,  with  such  rights, 
such  duties,  and  such  ideals  and  principles. 

Thetie  common  ideals  and  princii)les  are  the  pciiii.intiit  |).irl 
of  the  nation's  life.  They  constitute  the  spiritual  mioM  in  u  liidi 
otir  fluid   1h(Miglits  ;ind   emotions  take  the  shape"  of   Auiciican 


6  AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS 

characters.  They  establish  our  fellow  citizenship  with  Franklin 
and  Jefferson,  with  Washinp;ton  and  Lincoln.  They  arc  the 
formative  forces  of  that  great  instrument  which  some  humorous 
genius  nicknamed  the  melting  pot.  Till  the  outbreak  of  the 
present  war  we  have  flattered  ourselves  that  the  melting  pot 
was  working  fairly  well.  We  have  a  considerable  row  of  books 
describing  its  operation,  such  as  Jacob  Riis's  Making  of  an 
American  Citizen,  Mary  Antin's  Promised  Land,  Mrs.  Stern's 
My  Mother  and  I ,  Max  Ravage's  An  American  in  the  Making. 
These  are  all  narratives  of  men  and  women  who  came  to  America 
to  become  Americans;  to  break  with  their  national  past  and  to 
reattach  themselves  to  a  fresh  national  tradition.  In  these 
books  one  finds  the  records  of  the  amazing  process  which  trans- 
forms the  Scandinavian,  the  Russian,  the  Pole,  the  Roumanian 
into  loyal  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Republic,  rejoicing  in  the 
stars  and  stripes,  revering  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  celebrating  the 
Day  of  our  Independence,  honoring  the  national  heroes,  and 
glorying  in  the  national  principles  and  ideals.  In  ninety-nine 
cases  out  of  a  hundred  that  astounding  transformation  is  ac- 
complished by  our  general  educational  system  in  the  schools, 
the  colleges,  the  universities.  And  it  is  very  largely  accom- 
plished by  inculcating  American  ideals  through  the  language 
and  literature  of  America,  which  as  a  matter  of  fact  has  always 
included  the  literature  of  England.  The  makers  and  teachers  of 
American  literature  are  therefore  special  custodians  of  the  melting 
pot.  If  they  slumber  at  their  post,  the  fire  goes  out,  and  the 
transformation  of  aliens  and  even  of  the  native-born  into  Ameri- 
cans ceases. 

Since  the  war,  everj'^one  has  discovered  that  there  has  been 
going  on  in  this  country  an  aggressive  campaign  to  crack  the 
pot,  to  smash  the  mold  of  national  life.  Even  before  the  war, 
many  of  us  were  aware  that  the  national  culture  was  being  more 
or  less  systematically  attacked  from  certain  fjuarters  by  the 
process  known  as  "peaceful  penetration."  A  large  body  of 
immigrants  has  been  organized  to  resist  the  natural  operation  of 
the  American  political  and  cultural  environment.  They  have 
come  to  America  and  applied  for  the  privileges  of  citizenship 
without  any  intention  of  becoming  citizens  in  spirit.  They 
iiave  sought  to  preserve  unmixed  in  this  country  the  culture  of 


AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS  7 

the  country  from  which  they  came,  and,  wherever  possible,  to 
perpetuate  their  mother  tongue  as  the  preferred  language  in  the 
market,  the  schools,  the  newspapers,  and  the  churches.  When, 
in  such  uses,  the  alien  tongue  is  not  regarded  as  a  temporary 
and  transitory  expedient ,  it  has  usurped  the  place  which  belongs 
to  the  language  of  America.  Those  who  use  and  seek  to  main- 
tain it  as  the  preferred  language  are  deliberate  colonists  for  a 
foreign  empire,  and  enemies  of  the  American  Republic;  and 
their  operations,  it  is  heartening  to  recognize,  have  been  even 
more  seriously  resented  by  honest  and  intelligent  naturalized 
citizens  than  by  the  native-born. 

Along  with  such  overt  attempts  to  colonize,  there  has  been 
instituted  an  anti- American  campaign  of  a  more  insidious  char- 
acter, conducted  mainly  in  the  English  language  and  ostensibly 
by  American  citizens.  Among  its  leaders  are  editors  of  maga- 
zines, poets,  novelists,  critics,  brewers,  and  professors  in  the 
universities.  The  program  of  these  men  is  about  as  follows: 
attack  England;  praise  Germany;  attack  everything  in  America 
that  is  due  to  English  iniluence;  praise  everything  in  America 
that  is  due  to  German  influence.  Accordingly  they  sneer  at 
the  ideals  and  professions  of  democratic  government;  they  sneer 
at  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  at  all  the  Puritans  who  since  the 
seventeenth  century  have  constituted  the  moral  backbone  of  the 
nation;  they  set  themselves  against  every  movement  of  moral  re- 
form; they  sneer  at  all  the  humanitarian  moveinent?  associatetl 
with  Christianity ;  they  sneer'at  those  works  of  American  literature 
which  we  recognizee  as  classical.  In  short  they  keep  up  a  con- 
tinuous cannonade;  against  every  revcMed  American  tradition, 
against  every  established  political  ideal,  against  every  ac(;epted 
article  of  our  public  and  private;  morality,  against  everything 
admirable  in  our  social  aspirations,  against  <'verything  charac- 
teristic of  the  coinnion  sense  of  tin;  American  people.  On  the 
other  hand,  they  celebrate  the  l)iologic:il-political  ideals  of 
Prussian  statecraft,  the  biological  inunoralisni  of  Nietzsche, 
and  tlie  liteiat  ure  of  P.erlin  and  \'ienna,  especially  that  nastiest 
part  of  it,  which  they  are  certaiu  will  otfend  what  they  scodingly 
call  th(!  Puritanical  sensibilities  of  Americans. 

"Our  education,"  says  one  of  these  Prussianizing  Americans, 
"our  art,  and  our  science  are  ineradical)ly  (lernian.     Our  soil 


8  AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS 

itself  wolcoinos  a  German.  The  iMifilishman  is,  after  all,  only  a 
German  with  a  Norman  veneer.  In  AmcM-ica  the  veneer  drops 
ofT.  By  brain-filier  and  ])y  lilood  we  are  more  German  than 
English."  A  second  proselyting  pilgrim  steadily  presents  for 
our  eonsid(M-ation  the  thought,  that  America  is  a  "young" 
nation  with  as  yet  no  "culture"  of  her  own.  His  purpose  is  the 
same  as  that  of  a  third  apostle  who  exclaims  despairingly  that 
all  America,  cast  and  west,  north  and  south,  is  under  the  relent- 
less sway  of  Puritan  morality,  is  infatuated  with  popular  educa- 
tion, and  adores  the  idols  of  democracy.  The  first,  second,  and 
the  third  statements  are  utterly  inconsistent,  and  the  third 
destroys  the  other  two  by  presenting  substantially  the  truth.  It 
acknowledges  the  fact  that  we  have  indeed  a  powerful  and  effec- 
tive national  culture,  while  urging  that  it  ought  to  be  destroyed 
and  supplanted.  The  German  imperialist  who  seeks  to  prepare 
the  way  for  his  master  by  informing  us  that  we  are  a  young 
nation  without  a  national  culture  is,  in  plain  English,  an  im- 
pudent, maladroit,  and  palpaV)lc  liar.  The  German  imperialist 
who  concedes  that  an  old  and  nation-wide  culture  has  got  to  be 
destroyed  before  America  can  become  a  vineyard  meet  for  his 
master — such  a  German  has  at  least  the  virtue  of  Prussian 
"realism." 

Now,  waiving  for  the  moment  the  question  whether  the  Ger- 
man or  the  French  or  the  Turkish  or  the  Japanese  or  the  Jewish 
culture  is  or  is  not  superior  to  the  American  culture,  I  should 
like  to  present  an  important  objection  to  the  isolated  perpetua- 
tion in  this  countr}^  of  an  alien  culture,  or  to  the  attempt  to 
assimilate,  as  it  is  called,  the  various  cultures  of  all  our  aliens. 
The  objection  is  this:  Each  national  culture  develops,  in  response 
to  the  peculiar  needs  of  the  particular  people  among  whom  it 
ari.ses.  Its  value  is  directly  related  to  the  time  and  place  and 
circumstances  of  that  particular  people,  and  with  a  change  of 
circumstance  its  peculiar  value  may  largely  disappear.  As 
every  locomotive  has  its  driving  rod  and  its  brake,  as  every 
heart  has  its  diastole  and  its  systole,  so  every  adequate  national 
culture  must  develop  a  principle  of  expansion  and  a  principle  of 
contraction.  I  might  speak  of  the  principle  of  contraction  in 
the  austere  family  discipline  of  French  life,  or  in  the  aristocratic 
code  of  honor  among  the  Japanese  nobility,  or  in  the  religious 


AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS  9 

observances  of  the  Mohammedan,  or  in  the  minute  prescriptions 
of  the  IMosaic  law  imposed  upon  the  orthodox  Jew.  Let  us  only 
remark  that  the  American  who  becomes  a  "cosmopolitan" 
abroad  practically  never  embraces  the  principles  of  contraction 
in  the  countries  that  he  visits;  and  that  the  foreigners  who  come 
to  this  country  almost  univcrsall}'^  leave  the  contractive  principle 
behind  them  or  lose  it  in  the  second  generation.  The  natural 
tendency  of  the  cosmopolitan — the  man  who  thinks  he  is  as- 
similating all  cultures — his  natural  tendency  is  to  embrace  the 
expansive  principles  of  all  nations  and  the  contractive  principles 
of  none.  But  let  us  confine  ourselves  to  a  broad  distinction 
between  the  German  and  the  American  cultures. 

The  ideal  of  the  German,  we  infer  from  what  he  tells  us,  is 
external  control  and  "inner  freedom";  the  Government  looks 
after  his  conduct  and  he  looks  after  his  liberty.  The  ideal  of 
the  American  is  external  freedom  and  inner  control;  the  in- 
dividual looks  after  his  conduct  and  the  Government  looks  after 
his  hberty.  Thus  Verhoten  in  Germany  is  pronounced  by  the 
Government  and  enforced  by  the  police.  In  American  Verhoten 
is  pronounced  by  public  opinion  and  enforced  by  the  individual 
conscience.  In  this  light  it  should  appear  that  Puritanism,  our 
national  principle  of  contraction,  is  the  indispensable  check  on 
democracy,  our  national  principle  of  expansion.  I  use  the 
word  Puritanism  in  the  sense  given  to  it  by  German  and  German- 
American  critics:  the  inner  check  upon  the  expansion  of  natural 
impulse.  Now,  the  Germans  coming  to  America  leave  behind 
them  the  rigorous  regulative  force  of  the  German  Government, 
just  as  the  emancipated  Jews  leave  behind  them  the  rigorous 
regulative  force  of  the  Mosaic  law.  They  find  themselves  in  a 
country  where  the  good  American  in  ordinary  times  is  practically 
unconsci(Mis  of  any  governmental  ciu'ck  upon  liis  liberty.  Unless 
they  are  made  to  understand  the  check  of  iiulividual  responsi- 
bility which  the  good  American's  moral  cultuic  imposes  upon 
his  liberty,  they  may  easily  leap  to  the;  conclusion  that  America 
is  a  j)ara(lis(!  for  the  lawlc^M.  If  thcsi'  immigrants,  having  ac- 
cepted the  civic;  liberty  aiul  ((luality  piosided  liy  our  Govern- 
ment, refuse  the  correlative!  restraints  and  oliligalions  with 
which  in  America  the  individual  conscience  i<  charged,  the 
result  is  anarchy. 


10  AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS 

We  have  had  anarchy,  we  are  now  in  the  presence  of  anarchy, 
and  we  shall  continue  to  have  anarchy  till  we  recognize  and  act 
upon  the  principle  that  the  American  who  has  not  been  thor- 
oughly indoctrinated  with  American  ideals  is  a  menace  to  the 
Republic.  Let  us  have  an  answer  ready  for  those  wheedling 
sophists  who  urge  us  to  believe  that  we  shall  enrich  our  national 
life  by  harboring  un- Americanized  trilies  of  Russians  in  Iowa, 
Poles  in  Pennsylvania,  Hungarians  in  Colorado,  or  Germans  in 
Illinois.  Let  us  say  that  our  democratic  government  was  not 
designed  for  the  effective  control  of  unconverted  alien  peoples. 
Let  us  add  that  history  shows  few  examples  of  governments  that 
are  so  designed,  and  that  of  those  few  still  fewer  commend  them- 
selves to  our  admiration.  Russia  of  the  czars  has  attempted 
such  control  with  periodic  massacres  of  the  Jews  within  her 
borders.  Turkey  of  the  sultans  has  attempted  it  with  periodic 
attempts  to  exterminate  the  Armenian  Christians.  Austria- 
Hungary  has  attempted  it;  and  I  read  in  the  Chicago  Tribune 
of  November  21,  1917,  this  report  of  her  progress:  "Eighty 
thousand  persons  have  been  hanged  in  Austria-Hungary  since 
the  beginning  of  the  war  for  political  or  racial  opposition  to  the 
Government,  pacifist  activities  and  separatist  propaganda, 
according  to  estimates  here." 

But  why  seek  examples  in  the  old  world?  The  United  States 
has  attempted  it  with  the  result  that  in  the  time  of  a  great 
national  crisis  a  big  ])lock  of  hyphenated  Americans,  united  and 
organized  without  reference  to  American  party  divisions,  at- 
tempted to  bribe  and  bully  Congress  and  terrorize  statesmen 
in  the  interest  of  a  foreign  sovereign.  These  men  were  not 
brought  under  the  folds  of  the  American  flag  by  conquest;  if 
they  had  been,  we  could  understand  their  revolt.  But  they 
have  come  into  this  hospitable  land  by  their  own  will  and  choice; 
and  now  we  are  forced  to  conclude  that  they  have  come  to  pull 
down  the  stars  and  stripes  and  to  run  up  the  flag  of  the  land 
they  have  deserted.  Their  acts  strike  at  the  very  heart  of  our 
national  life;  and  the  only  answer  to  them  is  a  counterstroke. 
We  can  no  longer  afford  to  let  this  fact  speak  for  itself:  we  have 
got  to  insist  that  it  speak;  we  have  got  to  speak  for  it.  They 
have  kindled  the  fire  of  an  alien  propaganda  and  self-preserva- 
tion   demands    the    counterfire    of   an    American    propaganda. 


AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS  11 

They  are  zealous  and  impassioned  workers  for  a  German  Kultur, 
and  we  must  be  zealous  and  impassioned  workers  for  American 
culture  or  American  culture  will  be  swept  out  of  its  own  rightful 
home  and  heritage  on  American  soil.  It  is  one  thing  to  fight 
for  American  ideals  in  Berlin  and  Vienna,  and  quite  another 
thing  to  fight  for  American  ideals  in  New  York  and  Chicago. 
Liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  does  not  imply  my  right  to  go 
into  my  neighbor's  house,  and  throw  out  his  gods  and  goods, 
and  install  mj^  gods  and  goods  in  his  place — not  even  if  I  have  a 
big  club  and  he  has  no  club  at  all.  The  inheritor  of  American 
ideals  who  is  not  willing  to  throw  the  weight  of  his  character 
and  passion  against  a  usurpation  like  this  is  something  less  than 
an  American.  I  think  he  is  a  kind  of  tedious  old  ghost  who 
should  be  put  into  petticoats  and  set  to  knitting  mufflers  for  the 
governors  of  Belgium. 

II 

L'p  to  this  point  in  our  argument  we  have  been  discussing 
propaganda  for  American  ideals  on  American  soil.  We  are  in 
little  danger  as  yet  of  incurring  the  mendacity,  hatred,  and 
megalomania  which  beset  the  path  of  the  propagandist.  For 
here  is  no  ciuestion  whetlier  Amei-icans  or  Germans  shall  rule 
the  world.  It  is  only  a  ciuestion  whether  Germans  or  Americans 
shall  rule  in  America.  And  to  that  question  we  can  answer 
truthfully,  Idndly  and  humbly  that  Anu^-icans  have  the  prior 
claim.  But  let  us  turn  now  from  domestic;  to  international 
relations,  whcic  Kiii.ti,  hating,  and  niegali)ni;uii;i  ai'e  oi'diiiai-ily 
called  into  play  to  second  the  efforts  of  world  politicians. 

I  hav(!  }u;ard  on(!  of  our  jirojihets  declaring  that  eiiliei-  Germany 
or  America  is  destinecl  to  ruU;  the  world,  and  that  on  tlu^  whole, 
he  hopes  it  will  Ix;  America.  If  1  may  sjx-ak  out  of  my  own 
convicticms,  there  is  one  thing  more  abhorrent  to  my  conscience 
than  that  Germany  should  dominate  the  world  by  force  of  arms. 
That  one  more  abhorrent  thing  is  that  Ameiica  slionld  dominate; 
th(;  world  by  forc(^  of  arms,  ^\'hen  a  man  execrates  on  the  ])art 
of  a,  foi'cign  nation  a  coni'sc;  which  Ik;  praises  on  tli(^  pa  it,  of  his 
t)wn  jiation;  when  a  man  curses  ( Jern)any  because*  it,  is  militaristic 
and  then  rebukes  America  because  it  is  not  militaristic;  when  a 


12  AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS 

man  reviles  the  Germans  for  crying,  "On  to  Calais"  and  then 
turns  to  his  fellow  countrymen  crying,  "On  to  Panama";  when 
a  man  ridicules  the  Germans  for  calling  themselves  God's  chosen 
people,  and  then  turns  to  the  Americans  and  calls  them  God's 
chosen  people;  when  a  man  upbraids  the  Germans  for  shouting 
right  or  wrong  m\^  country,  and  then  turns  to  the  Americans 
shouting  right  or  wrong  my  country — confronted  by  this  bull- 
headed  preposterous  nationalism  the  experienced  INIuse  of  history 
buists  into  scornful  laughter;  he  that  sittcth  in  the  heavens 
turns  away  his  face;  and  Americans  in  the  midst  of  this  horrible 
slaughter  are  properly  admonished  to  prepare  for  the  next  war! 

Nor  can  we  escape  from  the  derisive  laughter  of  the  Immortals 
by  talking  about  the  Anglo-Saxons.  Only  one  degree  removed 
from  the  preposterous  nationalist  is  the  preposterous  Anglo- 
Saxon.  I  feel  fairl}^  intimate  with  the  ideals  of  America;  they 
are  mine.  I  know  something  of  the  ideals  of  England;  they 
are  allied  to  America's.  But  what  are  the  Anglo-Saxon  ideals? 
Do  they  include  Disraeli's,  Mr.  Lloyd  George's,  or  Mr.  Wilson's? 
For  that  matter,  who  are  the  Anglo-Saxons — other  than  those 
Germanic  tribes  that  drove  back  the  Celtic  and  Pictish  an- 
cestors of  our  Scotch-Irish  Presidents?  I  do  not  see  how  the 
American  scholar's  sympathies  can  be  strongly  enlisted  in  a  feud 
in  behalf  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  blood.  What  stake  have  the 
countrymen  of  Lafayette  in  a  blood  feud  of  the  Anglo-Saxons? 
Or  the  countrymen  of  Garibaldi?  Or  the  countrymen  of  Ker- 
ensky?  Or  the  Japanese?  Or  the  Brazilians?  Or  the  Portuguese? 
Or  the  people  of  China  and  Siam?  The  tics  of  blood  and  race 
count  for  next  to  nothing  in  this  conflict.  The  English-speaking 
peoples  have  no  monopoly  in  the  ideals  of  the  Allies.  The 
American  who  now  raises  the  flag  of  Anglo-Saxonism  raises  a 
meaningless  symbol  which  insults  the  pride  of  millions  of  his 
fellow  countrymen  and  most  of  the  Allies,  and  may  well  challenge 
the  Orient  to  muster  and  drill  her  millions  for  the  next  war. 

Appeals  to  race  prejudice,  to  a  purely  self-regarding  patriotism, 
to  the  old-fashioned  nationalism,  happily  do  not  nowadays 
always  carry  conviction  to  the  intellectual  class  to  which 
educated  men  are  alleged  to  belong.  Many  of  them  have 
banished  race  prejudice  as  a  relic  of  .tribal  days.  ]\Iany  of 
them  are  convinced  that  national  pride  needs  a  schoolmaster; 


AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS  13 

and  are  glad  that  it  has  one!  They  have  studied  the  world 
upheaval  in  which  the  nations  now  quake;  they  have  searchingly 
scrutinized  their  own  consciences;  and  many  of  them  have 
reached  the  conclusion  that  the  master  cause  of  this  tragedy,  of 
which  all  the  world's  the  stage,  is  precisely  the  old  self-regarding 
nationalism — the  nationalism  which  glorifies  power  and  has 
no  principle  of  contraction  to  oppose  to  its  principle  of  expansion. 
When  they  hear  Germans  shouting  ^'Deutschlatid  fiber  Alles,"  and 
Americans  shouting  "America  ilber  Alles,^'  their  hearts  refuse  to 
rally  to  either  call. 

They  say  that  the  only  way  to  avoid  brutal  and  hideous 
clashes  of  international  strife  for  national  expansion  is  to  stop 
this  barbaric  shouting;  and  to  set  up  and  establish  supcrnational 
ideals  and  principles  which  shall  impose  an  effective  check  upon 
the  indefinitely  expansive  principle  of  nationality.  Some  of  our 
statesmen  tell  us  that  it  cannot  be  done.  They  declare  that 
they  are  too  stupid  to  contrive  the  machinery  of  international 
government.  We  do  not  altogether  believe  them.  We  have  a 
very  great  confidence  in  both  the  ingenuity  and  the  power  of 
statesmen;  and  it  is  based  upon  experience.  We  believe  that 
statesmen  can  do  anything  that  they  have  a  mind  to  do.  We 
believe  in  the  ingenuity  and  power  of  statesmen,  because  we  see 
them  all  around  the  world  accomplishing  much  more  difficult 
and  incredible  things,  such,  for  example,  as  persuading  great 
nations  to  pledge  their  last  dollar  and  their  last  man  and  to 
walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  hideous  death  to  sup- 
port a  statesman's  word,  plighted  perhaps  without  their  knowl- 
edge or  consent.  From  that  spectacle  we  derive  our  belief  that 
when  statesmen  heartily  apply  their  ingenuity  to  contriving 
what  the  hearts  of  all  the  plain  people  of  the  world  desire,  they 
will  be  not  a  little  surprised  to  discover  the  easiness  of  the  task 
and  the  inexhaustible  power  behind  them. 

Where  shall  wc  find  the  supcrnational  principles  and  powers 
which  wc  wish  our  statesmen  to  establish,  which  we  demand 
that  they  shall  establish?  We  shall  find  tluMii  in  the  cause  for 
which  America  and  her  associates  are  now  fighting.  Cynics 
may  say  that  each  of  tlu>  Allies  is  fighting  for  its  own  special 
interest,  its  own  peculiar  culture,  its  trade;,  to  recover  this  or  that 
bit  of  territory,  to  annex  this  or  that  province  or  port.     Doubt- 


14  AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS 

less  selfish  motives  do  enter  to  some  extent  into  the  practical 
considerations  of  most  of  the  Governments,  just  as  brutal  and 
selfish  men  enter  into  the  armies.  But  unless  the  leading 
spokesmen  of  tiie  Allies  are  black-hearted  liars,  they  are  about 
a  nobler  business  than  national  buccaneerinfj;.  And  whatever 
the  Governments  are  about,  we  are  profoundly  convinced  that 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  the  Allies  are  not  cynics  and  do 
not  iute)id  to  he  dupes;  that  they  ai-e  not  fighting  for  ports  and 
provinces  and  trade;  that  they  are  fighting  for  the  common 
interests  of  the  whole  family  of  civilized  nations — for  nothing 
less  than  the  cause  of  mankind.  They  can  unite  from  the  ends 
of  the  earth  as  one  people,  sinking  their  national  peculiarities, 
because  they  are  drawn  by  a  bond  deeper  than  language  or 
nationality  or  race;  they  are  drawn  by  the  bond  that  unites  the 
commonwealth  of  nations.  They  are  not  fighting  for  French  or 
English  or  American  law,  justice,  truth,  and  honor,  but  for 
international  law,  international  truth,  international  justice, 
international  honor. 

The  new  national  pride  and  patriotism  developed  by  this 
conflict  finds  its  basis  in  the  service  which  each  nation  renders 
to  the  cause  above  all  nations,  the  cause  of  civilized  society,  the 
cause  of  civilized  man.  The  new  type  of  patriot  no  longer  cries, 
"my  country  against  the  world/'  but  "my  country /or  the  world." 
The  moment  that  he  takes  that  attitude  he  finds  no  more  hos- 
tility between  the  idea  of  nationalism  and  the  idea  of  inter- 
nationalism than  between  the  idea  of  a  company  and  the  idea 
of  a  regiment,  or  the  idea  of  a  State  and  the  idea  of  a  nation. 
As  each  good  citizen's  loyalty  to  his  State  accepts  a  principle  of 
control  in  his  loyalty  to  his  nation,  s*o  his  loyalty  to  his  nation 
accepts  a  principle  of  control  in  his  loyalty  to  the  general  family 
of  nations. 

Here  is  the  groat  fact  which  chaliengcs  the  loyalty  of  every 
humane  man.  Propaganda  for  America  and  the  Allies  is  not  to 
be  urged  to  the  disadvantage  of  any  nation  whatsoever,  pro- 
vided only  that  each  nation  is  willing  to  behave  like  a  member  of 
a  family  of  nations,  provided  only  that  it  will  accept  for  its  con- 
duct outside  its  borders  the  fundamental  principles  of  civilization. 
Our  propaganda  is  not  for  separatism  and  exclusion.  It  is 
rather  our  profound  conviction  that  there  is  no  room  left  in  the 


AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS  15 

world  for  barbarians,  for  heathen  tribes  without  the  law. 
Humanity  is  not  safe  while  any  nation  professes  inhumanity. 
We  are  not  fighting  to  put  the  Germans  out  but  to  get  them  in. 
Furthermore  we  have  got  to  take  the  Orient  in,  frankly  and 
fully;  or  in  all  probability  we  or  our  children,  or  our  children's 
children,  will  have  to  fight  the  Orient.  To  some  of  us  the  in- 
fluence upon  the  Orient  of  the  German  rebellion  against  the 
Family  of  Nations  appears  as  not  the  least  ominous  and  dreadful 
aspect  of  the  present  war. 

If  out  of  the  infinite  travail  of  this  war  there  is  to  come  a  new 
birth  of  national  freedom  under  international  law,  if  these  our 
numberless  dead  are  not  to  have  died  in  vain,  we  must  keep  our 
great  war  aims  ever  vividly  before  us.  Wo  must  not  merely 
defeat  our  adversaries  but  also  establish  the  principles  for  which 
we  drew  the  sword.  If  in  the  day  of  victory  the  apathy  of  en- 
lightened men  permits  reactionaries  and  old-fashioned  statesmen 
to  arrange  a  peace  under  which  the  nations  revert  to  the  fopncr 
state  of  international  anarchy  and  competitive  preparations  for 
fresh  conflicts,  the  spirits  of  millions  of  bemocked  and  victimized 
young  dead  men  should  rise  from  their  graves  to  protest  against 
the  great  betrayal.  To  insure  that  the  war  shall  end  as  a  purg- 
ing tragedy  and  not  as  an  eni]ity  farce  we  need  now  and  shall 
need  for  a  long  time  to  come  impassioned  expositors  of  the  laws 
of  man  and  God,  profaned  by  the  enemy  and  defended  by  America 
and  the  Allies. 

The  first  duty  of  the  pr()i)agaMdist  is  to  d(>t(>nnine  what  tlio 
ideals  aii<l  principles  of  the  Allies  are;  and  this  involves  deter- 
mining what  they  are  not.  On(^  can  best  discover  what  they 
are  not  by  reading  modern  German  literature,  German  news- 
papers, German  ethics  and  politics,  the  works  of  Schopenhauer, 
Nietzsche,  Treitschke,  liernhardi,  Hartmatm,  etc.  If  time  is 
short,  one  can  quickly  sharpen  one's  consciousness  of  what  our 
ideals  are  not  by  reachiig  daily  one  or  two  selections  from  an 
anthologA'  of  Clcrman  thought,  such  as  is  contained  in  Ci)»qiirsl 
and  Kiillur,  published  by  t  he  Commit  tee  on  Public  I  nfornial  ion. 
In  this  literal  ui"<'  one  will  make  af(|uaiiitaiie(>  with  the  Kais(M''s 
tribal  god  who  has  merited  the  iron  cross  for  his  able  support  of 
the  strategy'  of  the  German  ( leneral  Staff,  the  god  who  is  to 
stand  arm  in  arm  with  the  Kaiser  reviewing  his  Uhlans  on  the 


16  AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS 

Day  of  Judgment.  There  one  will  find  the  leaders  of  German 
thought  deifying  a  State  with  no  aspect  of  deity  but  power; 
denying  the  right  of  small  nations  to  live;  reviving  old  and  in- 
stituting new  forms  of  slavery;  affirming  that  might  is  right; 
defending  the  ravishment  of  Belgium;  rejoicing  in  the  Liisitania 
massacre;  glorifying  Schrccklichkeit;  recommending  that  ships  of 
friendly  neutrals  should  be  spurlos  versenkt;  advocating  keeping 
subject  peoples  in  ignorance  and  misery;  chanting  the  holiness  of 
war  and  hoping  that  it  may  last  forever;  extolling  war  as  the 
prime  element  in  their  Kultur;  and  proudly  declaring  their 
opposition  to  the  establishment  on  earth  of  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness  and  peace.  There  one  will  find  the  ideals  and 
principles  of  a  Government  which  has  covenanted  with  death 
and  agreed  with  hell. 

The  propagandist  can  do  good  service  by  holding  these  ideas 
up  to  execration,  not  because  they  are  German  ideas  but  because 
they  are  ideas  hostile  to  the  commonwealth  of  man.  And  if  by 
chance  any  spokesman  of  the  Allied  nations  falls  into  the  error 
of  saying  anything  resembling  ,these  ideas,  the  propagandist 
may  perform  equally  good  service  by  pointing  out  with  emphasis 
that  he  speaks  like  one  of  the  depraved  leaders  of  German  thought 
and  an  enemy  of  the  Allies. 

His  happiest  occupation,  however,  should  be  the  discovery, 
collection,  and  enthusiastic  promulgation  on  every  proffered 
occasion  of  the  ideals  of  the  Allies.  This  kind  of  propaganda 
has  not  yet  received  the  attention  it  deserves.  The  tendency 
has  been  to  expose  the  perversity  and  iniquity  of  the  enemy's 
aims  and  to  take  for  granted  the  righteousness  and  justice  of 
our  own.  As  the  war  proceeds,  the  Allied  nations  are  steadily 
drawn  by  necessity  to  fight  fire  with  fire;  to  parry  the  blow  of  an 
autocratic  Government,  they  have  had  to  make  their  own 
Governments  temporarily  autocratic;  to  meet  the  rush  of  a 
nation  in  arms,  they  have  had  to  put  their  own  nations  in  arms; 
to  resist  the  assault  of  a  people  trained  to  sacrifice  all  to  the 
State,  they  have  been  compelled  for  the  nonce  to  demand  a 
similar  sacrifice.  As  all  the  participants  in  this  dreadful  melee 
become  more  and  more  deeply  imbrued  in  the  blood  and  wrath 
of  combat,  it  grows  increasingly  difficult  to  distinguish  by  their 
external  aspects  the  victim  from  the  assassin.     This  hour  when 


AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS  17 

his  hands  are  subdued  to  the  dark  color  of  the  bleeding  mire 
wherein  he  grapples  with  the  foe  is  the  bitter  hour  for  the  idealist. 
It  is  the  hour  of  sinister  opportunity  for  the  man  who  builds  his 
philosophy  upon  the  incorrigible  baseness  of  our  human  natures. 
It  is  then  that  the  cynic  and  the  reactionary  croak  and  shout: 
"You  are  all  tarred  with  the  same  brush.  We  bet  on  the  black- 
est. Fall  to!  and  the  devil  take  the  hindmost."  This  is  the 
hour  when  it  tremendously  concerns  us  to  be  reminded  who 
began  the  war  and  what  it  is  about.  This  is  the  hour  when  it 
behooves  us  to  remember  that  our  soldiers  are  defending  the 
causes  which  our  statesmen  define.  It  is  the  business  of  the 
strategists  of  international  idealism  to  demand  that  the  armies 
of  the  Allies  shall  never  fight  for  a  cause  unworthy  of  the  com- 
monwealth of  man. 

Where  shall  we  look  for  the  ideals  of  the  Allies?  Primarily, 
perhaps,  in  the  utterances  of  the  Allied  statesmen  at  the  present 
time  and  in  the  vast  literature  of  the  conflict.  Take,  if  you  like, 
Siam's  statement  of  its  reasons  for  entering  the  war,  to  "uphold 
the  sanctity  of  international  rights  against  nations  showing  a 
contempt  of  humanity."  Or  take  Mr.  Wilson's  statement  that 
our  motive  is  not  "revenge  or  the  victorious  assertion  of  the 
physical  might  of  the  nation,  but  only  the  vindication  of  right, 
of  human  right,  of  which  we  are  only  a  single  champion";  or 
hi.s  other  statement  that  we  fight  "for  a  universal  dominion 
of  right  by  such  a  concert  of  free  peoples  as  shall  bring  peace 
and  safety  to  all  nations  and  make  tho  world  itsc^lf  at  last 
free." 

It  should  be  a  great  source  of  inspiration  and  confidciici'  lo 
recognize  that  the  ideals  of  the  Allies  have  Imhmi  tho  ideals  of 
just  men  in  all  ages;  so  that  we  may  find  them,  most  of  them, 
expressed  in  all  the  great  literatures  of  the  world,  ancient  and 
modern,  including  tin;  litcratun;  of  the  great  (lernians  of  the 
eighteenth  centiiry.  Contemporary  (lerman  thought  is  pre- 
historic, reversionary,  |)arado\ical.  It  seeks  t.o  fly  against  the 
great  winds  of  time,  to  row  against  the  deep  current  "if  human 
purposes,  to  ignon*  the  )i;raud  agreements  of  ci\-ili/,i'(l  m-ii,  and 
to  seek  its  sanction  in  the  iniconscious  law  of  tin-  juniile.  'Die 
Allies  are  seeking  to  cooperate  with  thc^  power  not  ourselves 
which  has  been  struggling  for  righteousness  through  tlu'  entire 


18  AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS 

history  of  man;  and  their  cause  will  be  borne  forward  by  the 
confluent  moral  enorfjios  of  all  times  and  peoples. 

It  was  to  Goethe  that  Arnold  generously  gave  credit  for  the 
idea  of  an  international  republic  of  intellectual  men,  an  idea 
precious  to  every  scholar  and  man  of  letters.  "Let  us  conceive, " 
said  Arnold,  "of  the  whole  group  of  civilized  nations  as  being, 
for  intellectual  and  spiritual  purposes,  one  great  conf(Hleration 
whose  members  have  a  due  knowledge  both  of  the  past  out  of 
which  they  all  proceed,  and  of  one  another.  This  was  the 
idea  of  Goethe,  and  it  is  an  ideal  which  will  impose  itself  upon 
the  thoughts  of  our  modern  societies  more  and  more."  It  was 
Goethe  who  said:  "National  hatred  is  something  pecuHar.  You 
will  always  find  it  strongest  where  there  is  the  lowest  degree  of 
culture.  And  there  is  a  degree  where  it  vanishes  altogether 
and  where  one  stands  to  a  certain  extent  above  nations."  These 
are  ideals  of  the  Allies,  now  scoffed  at  by  the  depraved  leaders 
of  the  thought  of  Goethe's  countrymen. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  has  discovered  the  cause  of  the  Allies  in  the 
words  of  Micah:  "What  more  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee 
than  to  do  justice  and  love  mercy  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God?"  Another  of  the  Prophets,  as  if  foreseeing  the  advice 
given  by  the  German  General  Staff  to  the  God  of  the  German 
armies,  expressed  an  ideal  of  the  Allies  when  he  said:  "Who  hath 
directed  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  or  being  his  Counsellor  hath 
taught  him?  .  ,  .  Behold,  the  nations  are  as  a  drop  of  a 
bucket,  and  are  counted  as  the  small  dust  of  the  balance. 
All  nations  before  him  are  as  nothing;  and  they  are  counted  to 
him  less  than  nothing  and  vanity.  .  .  .  [When  his  spirit 
is  poured  from  on  high]  judgment  shall  dwell  in  the  wilderness, 
and  righteousness  remain  in  the  fruitful  field.  And  the  work  of 
righteousness  shall  be  peace;  and^the  effect  of  righteousness,  quietness 
and  assurance  forever.''^ 

Confucius  expressed  an  ideal  of  the  Allies,  very  dear  to  the 
heart  of  all  Americans,  when  he  said:  "People  despotically 
governed  and  kept  in  order  Ijy  punishment  may  avoid  infrac- 
tion of  the  law,  but  they  will  lose  their  moral  sense.  People 
virtuously  governed  and  kept  in  order  by  the  inner  law  of  self- 
control  will  retain  their  moral  sense,  and  moreover  become 
good." 


AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS  19 

Cicero  expressed  a  majestic  ideal  of  the  Allies,  when  he  said: 
"True  law  is  right  reason  conformable  to  nature,  universal, 
unchangeable,  eternal,  whose  commands  urge  us  to  duty,  and 
whose  prohibitions  restrain  us  from  evil.  .  .  .  Neither  the 
senate  nor  the  people  can  give  us  any  dispensation  for  not 
obeying  this  universal  law  of  justice.  .  .  .  It  is  not  one 
thing  at  Rome,  and  another  at  Athens;  one  thing  to-day,  and 
another  to-morrow;  but  in  all  times  and  nations  this  universal 
law  must  forever  reign,  eternal  and  imperishable.  It  is  the 
sovereign  master  and  emperor  of  all  things.  God  himself  is  its 
author,  its  promulgator,  its  enforced.  And  he  who  does  not 
obey  it  flies  from  himself,  and  does  violence  to  the  very  nature 
of  man." 

English  literature,  espt^cially  since  the  seventeenth  century 
when  the  divine  right  of  kings  received  its  death  blow,  is  full  of 
expressions  of  Allied  ideals.  Milton  implies  one  in  Paradise 
Regained: — 

They  err  who  count  it  plorious  to  subdue 

By  conquest  far  and  wide,  to  overrun 

Large  countries,  and  in  field  great  battles  win, 

Great  cities  by  a.ssault;  what  do  the.se  worthies 

But  rob  and  spoil,  burn,  slaughter,  and  enslave 

Peaceable  natioiis,  neighboring  or  remote 

Made  captive,  yet  deserving  freedom  more 

Than  those  their  conquerors,  who  leave  behind 

Nothing  but  ruin  whoresoe'r  they  rove 

And  all  the  flourishing  works  of  peace  destroy.* 

And  Milton  expresses  an  ideal  of  the  Allies  for  the  period  follow- 
ing the  war:  "If  after  being  released  from  the  toils  of  war,  you 
neglect  the  arts  of  peace  ...  if  you  think  it  is  a  more 
grand,  or  a  moro  beneficial,  or  a  more  wise  policy,  to  invent 
subtle  expedicnt,s  for  increasing  the  revenue,  to  inultii)ly  our 
naval  and  military  force,  to  rival  in  craft  the;  ambius.sa<iorH  of 
foreign  StaU-s,  U)  form  skillful  treaties  and  alliances,  than  to 
udminister  unpolluted  justice  to  the:  people,  to  redress  the  in- 
jured, to  succor  the  distressed,  and  speedily  to  restore  to  ever}' 
one  his  own,  you  are  involved  in  a  cloud  of  error,  and  too  late 
you  will  p(rc(i\f,  win  ii  the  illusion  of  (hose  mighty  benefits  has 


•Quoted  by  E.  de  S^lintourt  in  I']nfjlinh  /W/«  nntl  Ihr.  X<Ui<)niil  Idml. 


20  AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS 

vanished,  that  in  nopilectinp;  those,  you  have  only  1)een  pre- 
cipitating your  own  ruin  aiul  di^spair." 

The  Hterature  of  France,  especially  since  the  Trench  Revolu- 
tion, is  full  of  the  ideals  of  the  Allies.  For  France  I  will  quote  a 
few  lines  from  the  essay  by  Victor  Giraud  on  French  civilization, 
recently  pul^lished  in  this  country  by  the  Department  of  Romance 
Languagies  of  the  University  of  Michip;an: 

''France  has  never  been  able  to  believe  that  force  alone,  the 
force  of  pride  and  brute  strength,  could  be  the  last  word  in  the 
affairs  of  this  world.  She  has  never  admitted  that  science  could 
have  for  its  ultimate  purpose  to  multiply  the  means  of  destruc- 
tion and  oppression,  and  it  was  one  of  her  old  writers,  Rabelais, 
who  pronounced  these  memorable  words:  'Science  without  con- 
science is  the  ruin  of  the  soul.'  She  has  not  been  able  to  con- 
ceive that  an  ethnic  group,  a  particular  type  of  mind,  should 
have  the  right  to  suppress  others:  instead  of  a  rigid  and  mechani- 
cal uniformity  of  thought  and  life,  the  ideal  to  which  she  aspires 
is  that  of  the  free  play,  spontaneous  development,  and  the  living 
harmony  of  the  nations  of  the  world." 

In  the  response  of  the  South  American  States  to  the  appeal  of 
the  cause  of  the  Allies,  deep  has  called  unto  deep.  No  novel 
circumstance,  no  momentary  impulse,  no  revelation  of  yesterday 
has  revealed  to  the  Latin -American  peoples  their  essential  com- 
munity of  interest  with  France,  with  England,  with  the  United 
States  of  the  North.  Through  all  temporary  misunderstandings 
and  estrangements,  they  have  remembered  that  they  are  kindred 
offspring  of  one  great  emancipative  idea,  inheritors  of  a  common 
political  purpose,  pilgrims  to  a  common  goal.  Through  the  con- 
fusions of  desperate  wars  Simon  Bolivar,  the  Washington  of  their 
revolutions,  led  them  a  hundred  years  ago  to  the  threshold  of  the 
new  world  of  national  independence,  civic  equality,  liberty, 
popular  sovereignty  and  justice.  He,  man  of  strife  though  he  had 
to  be,  cherished  lifelong  his  fond  dream  of  a  parliament  of  man, 
and  in  the  evening  of  his  life  summoned  on  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama  a  congress  of  nations,  which  he  intended  should  present 
a  united  front  to  imperial  aggression,  become  the  perpetual  source 
and  guarantor  of  public  law,  and  establish  concord  among  all 
peace-loving  peoples.  From  that  day  to  this  the  statesmen  of 
South    America    have    been    with    increasing    earnestness    and 


AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS  21 

effectiveness  the  friends  of  arbitral  justice  and  the  architects  of 
international  peace. 

What  shall  I  say  of  America  but  that  the  ideals  for  which  the 
Allies  are  now  every  day  more  consciously  fighting  presided  over 
her  birth  as  a  nation  and  have  been  her  guiding  stars  in  all  the 
high  moments  of  her  history?  I  mean  that  the  American  nation, 
established  at  an  epoch  of  intellectual  expansion,  was  to  a  re- 
markable degree  founded  upon  international  principles  by  men 
of  international  outlook  and  sympathies.  Our  founders  in 
general  claimed  nothing  for  Americans  but  what  they  were  will- 
ing and  anxious  to  concede  to  all  men;  so  that  it  has  ever  been  a 
splendid  tradition  of  the  American  Government,  when  about  to 
take  a  momentous  step,  frankly  to  state  its  case,  and  openly  to 
invite  the  considerate  judgment — not  of  Americans — but  of 
mankind,  thus  checking  the  expansive  principle  of  nationalism 
by  the  contractive  principle  of  a  supernational  allegiance. 

America,  furthermore,  has  never  established  the  worship  of  a 
tribal  or  national  deity.  The  God  invoked  by  the  framers  of 
our  Declaration  of  Independence,  our  Constitution,  our  Con- 
gress, our  Courts,  and  by  our  great  Presidents,  has  quite  obvi- 
ously, I  think,  been  approached  as  the  Father  of  Mankind. 
The  eighteenth  century  deists — men  like  Paine,  Franklin,  and 
Jefferson — had  indeed  thoroughly  repudiated  the  idea  of  a 
warlike  tribal  Jehovah;  the  qualities  which  they  habitually 
attributed  to  the  deity  were  justice  and  benevolence;  and  these 
characteristics  have  remained,  I  believe,  the  leading  ones  in 
what  we  may  call  our  national  conceptions  of  divinity.  And 
how  has  our  national  faith  in  a  Father  of  all  Mankind  Ihmmi  re- 
flected in  our  political  conceptions?  Well,  BcMijamin  T'lanklin 
said  in  the  midst  of  a  great  war:  "Justice  is  as  strictly  due 
between  neighbour  Nations  as  between  neighbour  citi/iCns 
and  a  Nation  which  makes  an  unjust  war  is  only  a  (jrcat 
Gang."  And  our  rX'claration  of  Indepcndcnci*  holds  that  the 
(iod  of  nature  has  made  it  self-evident  that  all  in.  n  are  crcat(Ml 
ecjual  and  einlowcd  with  inalienable  rights  to  life,  lil)erty,  and 
the  pursuit,  of  happiness.  AN'ashiugtori,  in  his  l''ai('\V(>il  Address, 
expres.ses  his  faith  that  I'roN'iilcnce  has  coiuirctcd  the  ])criiiaiieii( 
felicity  of  a  nation  witii  its  virtue;  accordingly  he  urg(>s  iiis 
countrymen  to  forego  t(Mnporary  national  advantages,  and  to 


22  AMERICAN  AM)  A  I,  LI  111)  IDllALS 

try  tlio  iuiv(4  oxpcrinuMit  of  ahvMVs  acliiifi;  iiiitioiially  on  princi- 
ples of  "I'xaltcMJ  justic(>  and  IumicvoKmicc."  Jefferson,  in  his  first 
inauirnial,  felii'itates  liis  conntrynu^!!  on  ili(^  fact  tiiat  r(>Iip;ion 
in  America,  luulcr  all  its  varions  forms,  inculcates  "honesty, 
trvith,  temperance,  gratitude,  and  the  love  of  man."  Liberty, 
equality,  justice,  benevolence,  truth — these  arc  not  tribal  ideals. 

All  these  ideals  which  our  national  fathers  derived  from  the 
Father  of  all  Nations,  Lincoln  received  and  cherished  as  a  sacred 
heritage,  antl  he  adtled  sometliing  precious  to  them.  He  took 
them  into  his  great  heart  and  quickened  them  with  his  own  warm 
sense  of  human  brotherhood,  with  his  instinctive  gentleness  and 
compassion  for  all  the  children  of  men.  "With  malice  towards 
none;  witli  charity  for  all;  with  firnmess  for  the  right,  as  God 
gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we 
are  in;  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him  who  shall 
have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow,  and  his  orphan — to 
do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace 
among  ourselves,  and  with  all  nations."  Why  do  these  words, 
uttered  near  the  bitter  end  of  a  long  war,  touch  us  so  deeply, 
and  thrill  us  year  after  year?  Because  in  them  the  finest  mor- 
ality of  the  individual  American  is  identified  at  last  with  the 
morality  of  the  nation.  The  words  consecrate  the  loftiest  of  all 
American  ideals,  namely,  that  the  conduct  of  the  nation  shall 
be  inspired  by  a  humanity  so  pure  and  exalted  that  the  humancst 
citizen  may  realize  his  highest  ideals  in  devotion  to  it. 

That  ideal  still  animates  the  American  people.  We  are  not 
sending  out  our  young  men  to-day  to  fight  for  a  State  which 
acknowledges  no  duty  but  the  extension  of  its  own  merciless 
power.  We  are  sending  them  out  to  fight  for  a  State  which 
finds  its  highest  duty  in  the  defense  and  extension  of  justice  and 
mercy.  Our  national  purpose  has  been  solemnly  rededicated  to 
the  objects  of  the  canonized  Father  and  the  Preserver  of  the 
Republic.  We  are  not  to  break  with  our  great  traditional  aspira- 
tion towards  the  expression  in  the  State  of  the  civility,  morality, 
and  responsibility  of  the  humanest  citizens.  In  the  noble  words 
of  Mr.  Wilson's  recent  address:  "The  hand  of  God  is  laid  upon 
the  nations.  He  will  show  them  favor,  I  devoutly  believe,  only 
if  they  rise  to  the  clear  heights  of  his  own  justice  and  mercy." 
So  believe  all  just  men. 


AMERICAN  AND  ALLIED  IDEALS  23 

Here  then  let  us  close  our  appeal  to  those  who  have  drawn 
apart  from  this  our  war  and  have  sought  for  their  emotions  a 
neutral  place  of  refuge  above  the  conflict.  The  cause  of  America 
and  the  Allies  is  the  defense  of  the  common  culture  of  the  family 
of  civilized  nations.  It  is  the  cause  of  the  commonwealth  of 
man.  The  ideals  and  principles  which  we  wish  to  take  hold  of 
character  and  govern  conduct  are  the  best  principles  and  ideals 
that  men  have.  We  need  not  fear  the  perils  that  beset  the 
propagandist  if  we  have  once  a  clear  vision  of  the  object  of  our 
propaganda.  We  need  not  fear  lest  we  become  wily  liars,  for 
our  very  object  is  that  central  human  truth  which  is  the  object 
of  all  knowledge.  We  need  not  fear  lest  we  become  venomous 
haters,  for  our  very  object  is  the  inculcation  of  the  sense  of 
human  brotherhood  and  human  compassion.  We  need  not  fear 
lest  we  become  besotted  nationalists,  for  our  very  object  is  the 
inculcation  of  a  sense  for  those  common  things  which  should 
be  precious  to  all  men,  everywhere,  at  all  times.  We  have  drawn 
the  sword  to  defend  what  Cicero  beautifully  called,  "the  country 
of  all  intelligent  beings." 


